'An headlesse Ladie' and 'a horses loade of heades': Writing the Beheading

P. Palmer

doi:10.1353/ren.2007.0091

'An headlesse Ladie' and 'a horses loade of heades': Writing the Beheading

P. Palmer

English and Related Literature

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The savagery of the native Irish and, in particular, their predilection for severing heads, is repeatedly asserted, not only in the texts of conquest, but in representations of the "Wild Irish" on the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage. This essay tests this literary commonplace against the historical record of the early modern conquest of Ireland. Far from being merely the aberrant practice of the barbarous Gaels, beheading — and a form of judicial headhunting — became a cornerstone of the conquerors' policy of martial law. As atrocity was redefined as justice, so, in the hands of writers such as Spenser, Churchyard, and Derricke, was it aestheticized. But even as such writers wove inventive beheadings into their texts, Irish poets were elegizing the severed heads of patrons killed by the English. The poetry of beheading became a site of cultural confrontation and of unexpected assertions of humanity.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	25-57
Number of pages	32
Journal	Renaissance Quarterly
Volume	60
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1353/ren.2007.0091
Publication status	Published - 2007

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10.1353/ren.2007.0091

http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/ren.2007.0091

Cite this

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abstract = "The savagery of the native Irish and, in particular, their predilection for severing heads, is repeatedly asserted, not only in the texts of conquest, but in representations of the {"}Wild Irish{"} on the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage. This essay tests this literary commonplace against the historical record of the early modern conquest of Ireland. Far from being merely the aberrant practice of the barbarous Gaels, beheading — and a form of judicial headhunting — became a cornerstone of the conquerors' policy of martial law. As atrocity was redefined as justice, so, in the hands of writers such as Spenser, Churchyard, and Derricke, was it aestheticized. But even as such writers wove inventive beheadings into their texts, Irish poets were elegizing the severed heads of patrons killed by the English. The poetry of beheading became a site of cultural confrontation and of unexpected assertions of humanity.",

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